Hans Blix

While the U.S. and its allies pushed for justification for military action in Iraq, and key opponents on the U.N. Security Council called for further inspections, Dr. Blix stood between the two, trying to fairly and impartially determine the true scope of Iraq's weapons program. He brought his famous qualities of calm to bear when confronting Baghdad and conveying the message that it must do something to demonstrate it is telling the truth about its weapons programs or face war.Dr. Hans Blix was born in 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden. He studied at the University of Uppsala, Columbia University in the United States and has a law Ph.D. from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

In 1959, he became Doctor of Laws at the Stockholm University, and in 1960, was appointed Associate Professor in International Law.

From 1963 to 1976, Dr. Blix was Head of Department at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and served as Legal Adviser on International Law. In 1976, he became Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in charge of international development cooperation. He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1978.

From 1961 until 1981, he was a member of Sweden’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly; and from 1962 to 1978, a member of the Swedish delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

He served as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1981 to 1997.

In 2000, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Hans Blix head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC). He retired in June 2003. Dr. Blix is Chairman of the newly formed International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction, which will begin work in January of 2004.

He has an Honorary Doctorate from Moscow State University (1987) and is a recipient of the Henry de Wolf Smyth Award (Washington DC, 1988). In 1997, he was awarded the Gold Medal for distinguished service in the field of nuclear affairs by the Uranium Institute, the predecessor to the World Nuclear Association. In 2001 he became Honorary Chairman of the WNA.

He has written several books on subjects associated with international and constitutional law and released his first book, Disarming Iraq, in March 2004.

In his speeches, The former leader of the U.N.’s inspection team gives us his firsthand account of the events leading up to the 2003 war in Iraq. Dr. Blix’s commentary gives audiences an uprecedented understanding of the inspectors’ work, findings, and conclusions. And his descriptions of his meetings with George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Dick Cheney, Condolezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Kofi Annan convey the frustrations, tensions, and drama of the months leading up to the invasion in 2003. His assessment of what happened is invaluable in trying to understand not only what brought us to the present state of affairs in Iraq but also what the possibilities are for preventing the spread and use of weapons of mass destruction in the future.